By Mark W. Christy, PhD
Many churches, especially among Baptists, have traditionally operated under a sole elder. Under this system, the sole minister often finds himself isolated and alone in the all-to-frequent, not to mention unfortunate and un-Christlike, struggles for power that occur between himself and the congregation and/or himself and the deacons. While it is uncommon, about seven percent of Baptist churches seek to resolve this ongoing power struggle by maintaining a permanent class of elders who oversee the church collectively and alongside the teaching pastor. To determine whether or not this leadership model finds authoritative support in God’s Word, this article will look at the biblical evidence that supports what is often termed the plurality of elders.
In Palestine, Jewish towns had multiple elders who served in positions of authority for communal matters (Deut 19:12; 21; Josh 20:4; Judg 8:16; Ezra 10:14; cf. Luke 7). This plurality of elders existed not only in their towns but also in their synagogues as the elders of a given town would serve double duty as the elders in the town’s synagogue, unless the town had a mixed population whereby only the synagogue itself would have such Jewish leadership.[i] Since elders served as the executive authority on civil matters, they likely held similar power in religious matters. Alongside and perhaps even among these elders, some members of synagogues filled special roles such as reading the Scripture, preaching, and prayer. In Acts 13:15, Luke speaks of what appears to be a body of elders who are jointly responsible for these tasks (cf. Mark 5:22; Acts 8:8).
At least within the Jewish life, it would seem that having a plurality of elders serve as religious leaders over a local religious body was common practice. This, however, does not in any way confirm that Christians must follow their example. Therefore, it is important to return to the biblical text and the New Testament (NT) in particular to find evidence for whether or not this practice should be followed in the Christian Church.
To speak against the idea of multiple elders, one can point to Paul who directed his communicated solely at Timothy and appears to expect Timothy to undertake his pastoral duty of disseminating that correspondence to his church alone. Along with this, one can also observe Christ’s messages to the churches in Revelations 2 and 3 were addressed to a singular messenger. Beyond this, John, in his second and third letters, refers to himself as The Elder.
In response to the evidence mentioned so far, one could easily remain less than persuaded since not one of the Scriptural references directly excludes the idea of multiple elders. As one continues to search for evidence, one will ultimately conclude that the preponderance of biblical evidence does indeed point to a plurality of elders within a congregation. In the NT, Luke, Paul, James, and Peter all mention elders in the plural form.
In Philippians 1:1, Paul greets “overseers” (plural) in the church (singular) at Philippi when addressing his letter solely to them.[ii] To the church at Ephesus, he exhorts the “overseers” (plural) of the “flock” (singular) to guard their parishioners well (Acts 20:28; cf. Acts 14:23; 20:17). In his letter to both Timothy and Titus, Paul mentions elders (plural). In 1 Timothy 5:17, Paul refers to the elders (plural) who administer the church (singular). In the same chapter, Paul gives directions to Timothy about accusations against “an elder” which assumes that there is more than one elder in a congregation to which one could level such accusations (19). In his remarks to Titus, Paul directly commands Titus to appoint elders (plural) in every town (Titus 1:5).
Along with Paul, James also mentions a plurality of elders in a church (singular) when advising Christians to call on the elders of their local assembly to seek prayer on their behalf (James 5:14). Likewise, Peter in 1 Peter 5:1 addresses his audience of elders (plural) while writing to them as an elder himself (cf. 1 Peter 5:5). As if the evidence for plurality of elders were not enough, Luke repeatedly mentions the Church of Jerusalem having multiple elders (Acts 11:30; 15):2, 4, 6, 22-23[CC1] ).
After examining the many NT references to the current subject, it does indeed seem entirely biblical for a church to maintain a plurality of elders. Additionally, this practice follows Jewish tradition closely, and appears to be a fairly natural outgrowth of the historical approach to religious leadership within a local body among the Palestinian forbears.
[i]Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, (epub 2017; Orig. T & T Clark, 1890), 372.
[ii]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.
[CC1]Assuming you wanted to incorporate this paragraph but just forgot or something. You’ll need to fix the font in the footnotes as well.